• Happy Easter and all that. Bad migraine yesterday, but the return of Doctor Who to compensate. #

• Race update is pending. Aquired a nice new Windows Phone 7, which is very, very good. #

• And we're about to be off again with the Chinese Grand Prix. New Windows phone to play with as well, which kills the 5230. #
• For all his good qualities, Jake is no Martin Brundle on the grid walk. #
• You'd have to imagine Vettel will stop early to use his better pace. Let's see how Jenson makes a set of tyres work. #
• If Webber was a rookie, he'd be dropped. Needs to start living up to his past glories and not trading on them. #
• Button's tyres are done, Vettel's are not. Game over it would appear. #
• That's going to be an all-time d'oh moment for Jenson. #
• Mercedes tyres now dropping off the cliff. Looks like an extra stop for both, or this is the biggest turn around of form ever. #
• An early stop for Button I wasn't expecting. Will only work if the extra stop can be avoided. #
• 24 laps for Vettel on one set? I think not. This could be a big, big cockup. #
• McLaren strategy makes no sense to me, this looks like a wasted opportunity. #
• Maybe not. Three stop was indeed the way. For once, I stand corrected. That said, I was right about Vettel's tyres not getting to the end. #
• More humble pie. Great drive from Webber. Proves the old favourite of the right tyres at the right time. 2011 means track position not God. #

• Need to update re: the race. Not bad, seen better. Vettel will walk this year unless something big happens. #

Having really enjoyed Becoming Human, we come to the parent series proper – Being Human.

Series 2 was two episodes too long – Series 1 was perfectly packaged in six episodes, but Series 2 was eight. And I always had the impression that this decision wasn’t an artistic one but one decided by the series commissioners, which resulted in too much padding, B-stories and a lack of tight focus. Compared to the brilliance of Series 1, Series 2 was occasionally superb – more often a little lacking.

So, Series 3? An almost total return to form, although the ending left something to be desired – on my part at least. Nina was promoted to a main character, and thus didn’t have to disappear for half the series and enabled the relationship with George to mature. The pregnancy storyline could be a lodestone for Series 4, but for this series the actual business of physically dealing with the offspring of two werewolves was delayed.

Big publicity was stoked up was the introduction of Robson Green as McNair – a werewolf with an all-consuming hatred of vampires, having been turned in a cage fight for the sport of vampires. His presence illuminated every scene he was in – and was an example of perfect casting for the role. Less impressive was Michael Socha, playing his adopted son – a plank of wood would have been arguably better at times. McNair deserved a better endgame – it was a shame that the gruff, but honourable warrior went down in such a futile and inglorious manner. There were some delightful self-contained stories, such as that of Adam – who then disappeared off as the starting point for Becoming Human. That story, and the story of the nightclubbing zombie, brought back the comic touch to the show which had largely been missing from Series 2 – which just seemed to take itself too seriously.

Of course, the overriding arc of Series 3 was the Wolf-Shaped Bullet and Michell’s spiral into self-destruction. The opening episode was incredibly strong, with the character of Lia just exuding menace behind her smile, taunting and then leading Michell down the path of paranoia and, as it happened, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The re-introduction of Herrick was superbly done, but – like most of the endgame – was ultimately a disappointment. Reborn with total memory loss after the hasty resurrection at the end of Series 2, his zenith came at the end of episode 7 and the near-fatal stabbing of Nina – after Michell had foolishly restored his memories trying to find the secret of escaping death at the claws of a werewolf. The final episode however then seemed a waste – finally consigned to the grand coffin in the sky via the stake at the hands of Michell, just as their relationship was getting back to the dangerous menace of Series 1.

And this, in the end, was the flaw in Series 3. The death of Mitchell.

As we found out on transmission night, the intention was for John Michell to survive the series – there would have been a different ending. However, with Aidan Turner departing for the world of The Hobbit, the final episode was re-written to bring the character to an end – which again was the choice of Turner. Given the choice of being shipped overseas or turned to dust, he chose the latter – which was an actor’s choice to be sure, but it wasn’t one of the program makers.

This left the high point of the season as the end of episode 7, not episode 8. Too many things felt “off” – suddenly the tight and careful plotting went astray. Lia, whom we assumed was the series antagonist, went from scheming minx, to misguided twenty-something. So full of rage and hatred at being killed at the hands of Mitchell, this instantly dissipated with some words from Annie – and not particularly clever words at that. We also never found out what gave Lia the ability to walk the world of purgatory as a power – in the end she was just another victim.

We had the new character of Windham crudely crowbarred into the series as a link to Series 4 – which felt the same as Herrick suddenly being thrown back onto screen via resurrection at the end of Series 2. Obviously introduced as a replacement for Herrick , this seemed rushed – and his introduction scene of waxing lyrical at police headquarters just felt forced and badly written. Herrick should have been retained – he was around long before Mitchell, and could have continued long-after. The dynamic of Herrick versus the household without Mitchell’s protection could have been a superb storyline moving forwards – and a natural progression.

Despite these concerns, the series payoff wasn’t bad – it just could have easily been better, and probably would have been if Toby Whitehouse knew that Turner was leaving at the end of the year.

However, the final act of John Mitchell asking for his life to be ended was an unsettling note for the series.

Since it’s inception, the question was could a supernatural live a relatively normal life and again be human. The answer in the case of John Mitchell, possibly the series lead, was a definitive no. No heroic exit, Mitchell twisted throughout the series through various shades of immorality, trying to save his own existence – and was on course to do so again at any price until brought short by the disgust of his best friend. Knowing himself incapable of the strength to resist killing more innocents, to resist bringing his friends into further peril, he asks for the cowards way out – death. No further fight against his nature, taking the harder path.

He surrendered to the futility of his cause, and therefore ultimately failed.

But as a positive, this final scene between Russell Tovey and Aiden Turner were superbly acted, and the image of Mitchell – turning to dust, with a smile on his lips at his escape from life and appreciation for the merciful act of his friend – perhaps at great personal cost – was a great one.

The imperfect final episode demotes the overall rating for the series to a note below perfect which the rest of the series demanded. 9/10.

I’ll be posting a review of Being Human later in the month, but first comes Becoming Human – it’s online spin off.

Of course, we say online but it finished it’s eight part web-only run with a full terrestrial, high-definition finale on BBC3. Whilst the BBC announced this as a reaction to it’s unprecedented popularity, with over 1.5 million views of the individual episodes, the timing of episode eight to finish the week after the Being Human finale suggests to me that this was the plan all along, unless the online presentation tanked.

Well, let me tell you it didn’t. I was hooked from the first episode, and I wasn’t expecting to be. Spin-off’s generally don’t pass mustard, and a Breakfast Club version of a Gothic horror wasn’t immediately selling itself as the best type of synergy. Leaving the web episodes aside for a minute, the daily content updates were well thought out and were certainly the reason for the growth of the audience. From 20-30 comments per day, well over 2000 were being left by the end. Admittedly half of them were the new community chatting amongst themselves, but that in itself was a testament to how much people were enjoying the concept, and how much they were prepared to spend of their time.

The television presentation, of all eight episodes edited together, might have lost the additional daily content, such as hand-held videos from the protagonists, various diary entries – but it blended eight weeks together very nicely and it certainly showed just how much the shooting script was run at breakneck pace. With a week between the web episodes, there was time for pause and reflection over the additional daily online content, but shown in one 50 minute format, the story was so tight, and told so fast that there was certainly a good 20-30 minutes more flesh which could have been put on the bones. Adam’s character was already well established in Being Human, but Matt and particularly Christa’s stories were largely untold.

I’ve chosen the inset picture deliberately as Christa (Leila Mimmack) is pictured front and center. Adam (Craig Roberts) may have been the nominal lead of the piece, with his vampire continuing from Being Human, however Mimmack stole just about every scene as the werewolf in denial, angry at the world and yet terribly afraid of what she is. Her character was stubbornly devoid of a back story, and a trick was missed here. Mimmack created the vulnerability simply via the portrayal, not via past information. We were treated to her transformation, and despite only minimal prosthetics unlike Being Human, I thought her portrayal of the sheer pain and violence of the act was superior to Russell Tovey and Sinead Keenan.

Completing the teen-reboot of the concept was Matt (Josh Brown), taking as the ghost of the piece. His job was actually pretty tricky, given the script painted him to be fundamentally pathetic and not the sort of person you’d classically want to hang about with. That he got whacked after peeping at Christa and his first act in the trio was to lie to the others, to manipulate them to wreck vengeance against his school bully, left the character with some integrity issues. The later episodes allowed Josh to show a more amiable side to the character, and bridge the credibility gap to why Adam and Christa were still helping him – in particular Christa risking transforming in the sight of the others, and within the school and all it’s attendant risks.

By the end reveal, the we had a very likeable trio who were bound together and reliant on each other. Matt had found the first true friends of his life – and like Annie was happier as a ghost. Christa had found those she could be honest with, and Adam had found those better than he and who would keep him on the straight and narrow. I certainly want to see more of them, and Becoming Human, in the future. However, “how” is up for debate. Whilst the online presentation was a rich experience, the 50 minute version was a pilot by any other name and I’d prefer any continuation to be in the same vein – a “proper” series shown on BBC3, possibly during the summer season away from Being Human proper.

They’ve certainly hit gold with the cast, which is more than half the battle.

• Going across Manchester when United are playing in Europe isn't the best idea. Neither is holding a dental lecture. #

• Watched the finale of Being Human Series 3 last night – and I'm still in mourning the next day. Funny how things affect you. #

Okay, a bad pun – as it’s now March and 2011 is moving at a fair pace.

Has been very similar the last couple of months, and not all that exciting – lots of work, raiding the new content in Cataclysm and some minor free time at the weekends – when I’m usually too tired to do very much, or just run out of gas by early evening.

The raiding has been the biggest problem, as it’s never run smoothly since the turn of the expansion. Why? Well, because people are selfish and don’t appear to think twice about letting you down with minimal apologies, or indeed none at all. Running a raid team has rewards, and it’s social but it doesn’t half suck the life out of you – forget Sudoku, the mental effort is leagues ahead.

But things are on the up. Some daylight at each side of work is welcome. And soon the garden will start growing. And the car will need detailing. So, here’s to March – and hopefully more time outdoors.

• Well, the last month has motored past. Work and WoW largely, which is a bit of a sad state of affairs. Not as bad as Kubica's crash mind. #